


this, my promise to you

by goblinhimbo



Series: Ranboo Centric Stories [6]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Puffy, Ranboo Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Sad Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29320890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goblinhimbo/pseuds/goblinhimbo
Summary: When Puffy got a note telling her to come to certain coordinates, she honestly didn't know what she was expecting. Comforting a crying child was not it.
Relationships: Cara | CaptainPuffy & Ranboo
Series: Ranboo Centric Stories [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2121798
Comments: 5
Kudos: 488





	this, my promise to you

**Author's Note:**

> this is probably no good, but i wrote it in under 24 hours while a bunch of other stuff was happening personally so its good enough!

Walking around the snowy biome, it was clear where the note that she had been left had wanted her to go. The home looked cozy, not the kind of place where she would have expected Technoblade to live. She supposed that it did make some kind of sense, seeing as he did consider himself retired. Though considering the current circumstances, she didn’t know if that still applied. 

Things about the egg seemed to be the exception for a lot of people these days. Bad throwing away his friendships, Puffy throwing away her trust in her friends, Technoblade throwing away his retirement.

All the egg did was take and destroy. If only her friends could see that. 

Taking a deep breath, she wandered into the house in front of her. All she had to do was find a good place to leave a note, actually figure out what to say in the note, and then leave. Simple. And then she could go about her day, joking and lighthearted, and ignore how the server seemed to be falling apart around her. 

She looked up to the entrance to the house, about to open a door when movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Whipping her head to the side, she looked to what it was. 

Huh. Well then.

Standing off to the side a hundred feet or so away, next to a wooden shack, was Ranboo. The teenager was frozen, staring at her with wide eyes. 

“No…” She walked back down the stairs of the larger house, trying to keep her eyes on the figure as long as she could. “No… No, surely not.” As she walked toward him, Ranboo quickly bolted into his house. 

He couldn’t be the person who had left her that note… Could he? 

Puffy honestly didn’t know much about the boy. She was a little embarrassed to admit that despite trying to keep an eye out for the kids of the server, she hadn’t paid much attention to the enderman hybrid. She had her hands full with Tommy and Tubbo as it was, on top of building her therapy office. 

She had seen him running around the place a good few times, just like everyone else. There was the one time she made eye contact with him, resulting in her being unable to move her body for a while until he broke it and ran away. Though, to be fair, that was entirely on her, considering she was fully aware of his enderman hybrid status.

Other than those interactions, however, she couldn’t pinpoint a time she ever actually spoke to him. She knew that she did at some point, as she could pinpoint what his voice sounded like, the specifics completely evaded her. 

Could he be the one who had left her the note? She knew he didn’t like sides, and anarchy is  _ kind of  _ like not picking a side? But no, that directly went against Tubbo, and she did know that they were friends. 

But what did she know? If the past weeks have taught her anything, it's that people can change. Whether she thought they would or not. 

As she approached the shack (Did Ranboo live there? It wasn’t the worst home, she supposed, but it wasn’t fit for a kid to live there.) she peaked into the ‘window’, which in actuality was just a space in between the wood where one could look in. Ranboo almost seemed to be hiding from her, which gave her a pang in her heart. But she had to know. 

She moved to the doorway, and felt the concern grow when she noticed it was just a fence gate instead of an actual door. He was an enderman hybrid, didn’t water hurt him? Even if it didn’t, it was  _ cold. _

Peaking in the small home, she carefully asked him, “Ranboo, did you leave me a note?”

Surely it was a conscience that he was there. After all, there was clearly the larger house, someone or even multiple someone’s had to live there. 

She waited for a response for several long, awkward seconds. When she didn’t get one, she sighed lightly before tossing the book with the note inside the shack, asking again, “Was that you?”

Slowly, Ranboo picked up the book off the ground and stared at it. Right when she was about to speak up again, he threw the book back up at her. “No.”

“No?” There was a note of relief in her voice that she didn’t bother to hide at the answer. Puffy needed help, she  _ desperately _ needed help with the egg, but she didn’t want it from a child. Not because she thought that he would be incapable, no, her time on the server taught her that children are  _ not _ incapable. She didn’t want help from a child because he deserved to be a child. Ranboo didn’t deserve to have to deal with a murderous egg cult, that was the adults’ burden. Not his. 

Not that the server was too good at that. Tommy and Tubbo had both been in multiple wars, Purpled was currently being paid to assassinate her. Who knew what brand of fucked up Ranboo may be. 

“Do you know who left it for me then?”

Ranboo shook his head slowly, his shoulders so high and tense they practically met his ears. The sound of his breathing got louder, and Puffy grew more concerned. He looked like he was practically having a panic attack, but why?

“... Please leave.”

“What?” Puffy’s eyes widened at the sound of his voice, frailer than she had ever heard it. She had seldom interacted with the boy, but even she knew he didn’t sound like that, small and like he was about to keel over at any moment. 

“Please, please leave.” Puffy opened her mouth, but before she could find anything to say he continued, “I don't, I don’t want to be involved again, please…”

Finally, Puffy stopped thinking about her goal of the note and the Eggpire and forced herself to completely focus on the trembling boy. He was crouched in a corner of the shack, his eyes darting around, never resting anywhere. He was  _ terrified,  _ terrified of her. 

“Oh, bud…” She quickly opened the gate and took a single step into the shack, closing it behind her as soon as she was just barely inside enough for it to shut. She was careful to stay as far away from Ranboo as she could, not wanting to frighten him even more. 

“Everything is just happening again.” Ranboo was muttering, barely loud enough for Puffy to hear. She had the feeling the words weren’t even for her. “I don't want to be involved in things again. I just wanna build my house and farm and take care of my cats, and… Is… Is everything just going to be happening again?”

Ranboo looked up at her, his eyes filled with tears. Puffy watched in silent shock as the tears overflowed, falling down his cheeks and filling the small area with a sizzling sound as they burnt his cheeks. 

Notch, how Puffy hated being right. How she hated that this kid, this  _ child _ , was crouched in front of her, crying about how he was being forced back into conflict. How she hated that she was at least partially responsible, in coming here and disturbing his peace. She may not have been the one to set the meeting here, but that didn’t mean she didn’t bear at least some of the blame. 

Moving as slowly as she could, she crouched onto the cold floor. Ranboo’s frightened eyes followed her, and she kept her motions slow and careful. Once she settled, now on the same level as Ranboo, she paused for a moment. “Things are happening again.”

His eyes filled with more tears, and he wrapped his arms around his midsection. A choked sob escaped him, and Puffy was filled with an overwhelming guilt. 

She wished she could make it all stop for him, make the arguing and conflict all stop, just so he could have some rest. But she couldn’t. And there was no point in lying to him, not when the note led here of all places, not when even if she did lie to his face it would wind up finding him again anyway. He deserved the truth, especially when the truth directly affected him. 

“But,” she started, only continuing when Ranboo looked back at her, “I will do everything I can to stop it from affecting you.” 

He gave her a dubious look, and she laughed at it slightly. “I know, everyone on the server kinda sucks at not letting their problems affect other people. And I can’t promise that it won’t affect you at all. But I promise to you, Ranboo, I’m trying to keep you kids out of it.”

“Not a kid,” he protested, wiping away his tears with the sleeve of his suit. Puffy smiled sadly, not protesting. She knew that no matter what she said, he would disagree. 

All the kids of the server have been treated as adults for so long, they forced themselves to act like the adults they were expected to be. If you’re treated like something for long enough, you become convinced you are that thing. They’ve been denied their childhoods, and now they are traumatized and scared and don’t know how to act their age. Puffy can only hope that she can help them, even if it's just in making sure no one hurts them again.

“Regardless of whether or not you are a kid, this is not your fight. You didn’t ask for this, so I will do whatever I can to make sure you are not dragged into it.”

Ranboo slowly nodded, still looking doubtful. That’s alright, he didn’t have to believe her. She would keep her promise to him, and eventually he will see that she didn’t lie. 

They sat in silence for a couple minutes, Ranboo slowly composing himself and Puffy deep in thought. “Technoblade lives in that house, right?” she asked suddenly, breaking the silence. 

At Ranboo’s answering nod, Puffy stood and said, “Okay. I am going to leave him a note, like it said to do, and in it I will tell him that in the future we will be meeting somewhere else. Meeting here is too risky, someone could follow us and get you involved.”

“You… You don’t have to do that,” Ranboo protested weakly. He sounded unconvinced of his own words, and Puffy gave him a deadpan glance. 

“I said I would do what I could to keep you out of it. I am going to. Besides, it's a long trip to get here and I’d rather meet halfway somewhere. That way it's on even footing.” She was mostly making up an excuse so Ranboo wouldn’t feel like a burden, but it was honestly a pretty good idea. Technoblade was powerful enough on his own, meeting on his turf would give him an even greater advantage if it turned out he couldn’t be trusted. 

She waited several seconds for any kind of response. Eventually she turned, about to leave and go do as she said, but before she did Ranboo called her name. 

“Yes?” She turned back around, looking at him carefully. 

"I… I know you said you would try to not let me get involved, but I still think I deserve to know what's happening.” As he spoke his voice evened out, and he sat straighter, gaining confidence. “Even if you try to keep the conflict away from me, I know how this works. Eventually it’ll spill over and everyone will get involved, whether they want to be or not.”

He took a deep breath before continuing, “And even if that doesn’t happen and you guys manage to deal with whatever is happening, I still live here. Eventually it’ll affect me, whether I want it to or not. I would rather at least be aware of what’s happening.”

As much as Puffy hated to admit it, that made sense. She herself could only do so much, and even if she tried her best to make sure it didn’t, it would eventually probably affect Ranboo. The very least she could do is make sure he was prepared. 

Sighing deeply, Puffy sat back down on the ground suddenly. Ranboo’s eyes widened in surprise and Puffy tried to smile reassuringly at him, not wanting him to see how uncertain she was. That wasn’t his problem. 

“I don’t know how much you know about the egg, so I’ll try to give you a quick rundown. A while ago, Bad discovered a red egg underneath his base. At some point, he became corrupted along with Skeppy, Punz, and Ant. Their only goal is to make the others love the egg and to spread its weird vine things. You’re probably seen them around, they’re all over the server at this point.”

Ranboo nodded in resonance, and Puffy continued. “They wanted me to join them and for a while I pretended to be one of them. Eventually though, they started going too far. They tried to kill Tommy, they trapped Sam, and now they’ve hired Purpled to kill me. I wanted help, and well, they  _are_ called the Eggpire.”

Realization dawned on Ranboo’s face. “They’re essentially a government, or close enough to being one. So you went to the one person you knew would help you take down a government.”

Puffy nodded, saying, “Exactly. But I never even asked him. Today when I went into my basement, there was a burning structure that spelled out ‘anarchy’, with a chest with the note in it. A bit dramatic, but it sent the necessary message.”

“He came to you first. So he’s definitely going to help you.”

His shoulders dropped in disappointment, and with a pang in her heart Puffy realized he still had hope that Technoblade wouldn’t be getting involved. 

“It’s not definite yet, but probably.”

The enderman hybrid nodded in understanding, wrapping his arms around himself again. “Okay.. okay.” He took a deep breath, sighing loudly before he continued. “Well, at least the thing you’re fighting against is clearly bad. If it hurt Tommy and Sam, then it deserves to be fought against. I just… I understand why you are fighting it, but I still just want to be left alone.”

Before she could reassure him again that she would do everything within her power to make sure it doesn’t in any way affect him, Ranboo continued. “Does that make me a bad person?”

“What?” She sat up straighter in shock, her voice louder than she intended. “No, of course not. Wanting to be left out of things doesn’t make you a bad person, it just means that you prefer the peace and quiet.”

“But willfully ignoring bad things happening and not doing things about it  _ does _ make me a mad person.”

Puffy sighed, ignoring the urge to rub her temples. She didn’t want Ranboo to think she was mad at him specifically, but lord these kids gave her a stress headache. “But you’re a  _ kid _ , Ranboo. I know you say you aren’t, but you are. Until you’re eighteen, you’re a kid. It isn’t your job to deal with others' problems.”

“I guess…”

Nodding assuredly at the agreement, as half hearted as it may be, Puffy stood again. 

“Alright then! I’m going to go leave a note, like I said, and then I will be out of our hair. We can either never talk again,  _ or,  _ you can come to my house or office once it’s done being built. I know what I would prefer, but whatever you want to do is okay.” 

Ranboo nodded. Puffy nodded back at him, smiling kindly. She turned around and walked out, this time without interruption. 

And if Techno received a very angry letter about not arranging cryptic meetings at his house without informing his child neighbor, and if the next day Ranboo woke up with a proper door and window, then that was no one’s business. And if when Puffy’s therapist office was finished being built, her visitor was a enderman child hybrid, well. Puffy knew Ranboo wouldn’t tell anyone about the way her smile was filled with joy, or the way they sat and talked for hours. 


End file.
